MANA’s Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) treats children ages 6 months to 5 years suffering moderate acute malnutrition and acts as a dietary supplement. “We target our products at children as, unlike adults, if a child loses 2 pounds due to going without food, they die. There is no time to spare for kids, so we have to act quickly,” says Moore. MANA’s two other products, Lipid-based Nutrient Supplement (LNS) and Humanitarian Supply Ration (HSR) are designed to prevent malnutrition in children, pregnant women, and adults.
Moore is keen to emphasize that being a non-profit producer that sells to aid agencies still means his company is run on the strictest commercial principles. “We have to operate very much like a forprofit entity, keeping a tight control on our costs, which requires a for-profit mentality within a not-for-profit structure. I call this a ‘for-meaning business’, which is why we keep score of the children we have served in the plant, to make sure we wake up every day and feed as many kids as we can.”
This drive is why, in 2019, MANA turned to Bühler as it started to explore the possibility of roasting its own peanuts rather than buying them for processing.